JUST WHEN it seemed I was through with council meetings for the year, La Verne, of all cities, threatened to create actual news during Christmas week.

With only three candidates for three council seats, the council was likely to cancel the March election at Monday’s meeting.

Which is what happened on the rain-drenched night. Steven Johnson, an incumbent, had declined to seek a third term, paving the way for the lone challenger, Charlie Rosales, to take his place.

It was like a bloodless coup. (We would expect no less in placid La Verne.)

Johnson offered no comment at the meeting, but Councilwoman Robin Carder said: “When I spoke to Steve, he said he wanted to spare the city the expense of the election. I think that was very nice of him.”

In fact, La Verne will save $60,000. (Usually you save money for a rainy day, not on a rainy day.) A similar amount was unspent in 2007 when that year’s election was canceled due to a shortage of candidates.

No wonder La Verne has such a high quality of life: No elections!

Johnson will leave office March 21, just as if there had been a March 8 election, and Rosales will be sworn in. So will returning Councilman Robert Rodriguez and Mayor Don Kendrick, who, with no challengers, were automatically re-elected.

Kendrick, who must face voters – or not, in this case – every two years, was elected in 2009 after four years as a councilman.

Rodriguez has held his seat since 1982. He seemed slightly troubled by what the low interest meant.

“I hope it’s the confidence of the people,” Rodriguez said, “and not that people are so unconcerned about city politics they don’t want to get involved.”

I’d arrived at the meeting late and took the first available seat, which turned out to be by Rosales. When the meeting adjourned, this enabled me to be the first to shake his hand in congratulations.

Rosales had taken out and returned his candidacy papers Nov. 15, the first day they were available. I asked him kiddingly how much he’d spent on his campaign.

“Just under $1,000,” Rosales replied.

Huh?

He started campaigning months ago, handing out fliers and buying a newspaper ad with a list of his supporters. If he was trying to scare off any competitors, he would seem to have been successful.

I remember that. There was a photo in the newspaper of Carder and Rosales hugging in the council chambers.

Just as I replayed that image in my mind, there in the council chambers, Carder walked up, congratulated Rosales and hugged him.

Stop it, La Verne, you’re freaking me out.

***

SUNDAY’S CONCERT in Pomona by the Los Angeles Master Chorale brought more than 1,000 people out in the rain to First Baptist Church.

The chorale’s 61 singers entered in gowns and tuxedos. Music director Grant Gershon, a friendly figure, welcomed the audience.

“We’re particularly grateful to all of you who have risked life and limb on the highways and biways to be here,” Gershon said.

The chorale performed an hour of Christmas music, both traditional and new. There was a singalong of “The First Noel.” There were two Hanukkah songs and another piece, “Noel Ayisyen,” was performed in Haitian Creole, which Gershon described at its conclusion as the Haitian version of French.

“We were going to have you join in a singalong in Haitian Creole,” Gershon cracked, “but decided that might not be a good idea.”

The audience was appreciative. In my section in the balcony, however, a couple of crying babies had to be carried out, and behind me, during the last song, someone crinkled a snack out of plastic wrap for practically a full minute.

But for $5, the show was the bargain of the year.

So what happened afterward?

The Rev. Glenn Gunderson, whose church was the site of the concert, was gung-ho to go downtown for dinner with his wife, Kimberly, an after-concert idea pitched in this column.

“We’re going to make a night of it downtown like you said,” Gunderson told me. Music to my ears.

Fliers had been handed out at the door listing restaurants that would be open that evening. The weather, of course, had kept many ticketholders away from the show and certainly didn’t help the restaurant promotion.

At New York Delight, I was the sole customer. (My tab may only have paid the evening’s light bill, but the pumpkin bisque soup was delish.)

“I’d say it was a success given the weather,” Egan told me Tuesday. “It was worthwhile.”

Whew.

***

STILL AWAKE at 10:30 p.m. Monday, I dressed, opened an umbrella and went outside on the fourth straight night of rain, hoping to catch a glimpse of the lunar eclipse, a phenomenon that won’t be repeated until 2014.

But where was the moon? I couldn’t see it. Was it blocked by Claremont’s copious trees?

I sloshed halfway around the block, peering at breaks in the skies, before determining that wherever the moon was, it was behind a sky full of storm clouds.

The total lunar eclipse would officially last 72 minutes, but as far as Southern California is concerned, the eclipse of the moon – and a second eclipse of the sun – has been going on for days.

Since 1997, David Allen has been taking up valuable newsprint and pixels at the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, where he is a columnist and blogger (insidesocal.com/davidallen). Among his specialties: city council meetings, arts and culture, people, places, local history, dining and a log in a field that resembled the Loch Ness monster. The Illinois native has spent his newspaper career in California, starting in 1987 at the Santa Rosa News-Herald and continuing at the Rohnert Park-Cotati Clarion, Petaluma Argus-Courier and Victor Valley Daily Press. A resident of Claremont who roots for the St. Louis Cardinals and knows far too much about Marvel Comics, the Kinks and Frank Zappa's Inland Valley years, he is the author of two collections of columns: 'Pomona A to Z' and 'Getting Started.'